


Anthony J. Crowley: Very Much Grounded

by thanks_for_the_existential_crisis



Series: Anthony J. Crowley: (Semi) Secret Horticulturist and Aziraphale: Closet(ed) Bastard [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Anathema Device is Crowley's Sister, Anxious Aziraphale (Good Omens), Aziraphale's Parents Aren't As Great, Besotted Crowley, Bisexual Crowley (Good Omens), Chubby Aziraphale (Good Omens), Closeted Character, Crowley Has Good Parents, Crowley Has Hypermobility, Crowley Questions (Good Omens), Dramatic Crowley (Good Omens), Fluff and Humor, Forbidden Love, Friendship/Love, Gabriel is Aziraphale's Older Brother, Gay Aziraphale (Good Omens), Gay Male Character, Idiots in Love, Like Romeo And Juliet But Except They're Just Over Dramatic Teenagers-oh wait, M/M, Mentioned Hastur (Good Omens), Mentioned Ligur (Good Omens), Teen Angst, because he's in love, because that's what he deserves, crowley has a speech impediment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 11:04:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20759324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanks_for_the_existential_crisis/pseuds/thanks_for_the_existential_crisis
Summary: "Dinner that night goes alright. Crowley’s mom has obviously talked to his dad because he’s not looking at him like he’s going to go overdose on heroin if they take their eyes off him for more than a few seconds and his little sister Anathema chatters on about what she’s learning about whales in her science class. So, everything is fine. He goes to bed feeling better that night. Then he wakes up to tapping on his window and promptly freaks the fuck out...Aziraphale is waking him up by rapping on his window at, he checks his clock, four in the morning? If Zira's parents find out he’s dead. Crowley smiles."





	Anthony J. Crowley: Very Much Grounded

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Profanity, same peer-pressured drug stuff, vague mentions of religion-based homophobia (For more details about this check the end notes) 
> 
> This work is part of a series and you probably need the first one to understand it.

Crowley spends a week at home locked up in his room doing nothing but homework. See, suspension means he isn’t allowed at school but he still has to do all the work. His teachers even make him come up after hours to take the tests. It’s ridiculous. And, he’s grounded so he’s not allowed to do anything but eat, sleep, and study. His mom and dad got called in to “talk things over” and “make sure everyone is on the same page” so now the Principal has his mom thinking he’s some awful problem that’s always getting into trouble. That’s not even true. This is the first time he’s done anything worse than skip class in months. And he still doesn’t think he should have gotten detention for taking Mrs. Nelson’s cactus out of her office. She was overwatering the poor thing. It was drowning. Dying. She was _killing it._ But whatever. So his dad is quietly disappointed and his mom is loving and disappointed and he’s grounded for a month. A. Month. His life is over. As soon as he’s back at school Beelz and them are going to expect him to act like this never happened and do whatever they want him to and he can’t afford that if he ever wants to be allowed to exist again. And the worst part of the whole mess is that he hasn’t spoken to Aziraphale in days. It’s only Wednesday. He doesn’t go back to school until Monday. And even then, yeah Zira _said _he won’t let his parents tell him they can’t be friends but what if they get overbearing and pushy? His Angel is an anxious sweetheart and if his mom gets teary and goes on about wanting what’s best for her baby, well. That’s when he always gives in. No matter how determined he was to not give up this time. 

“Anthony!” 

“Yeah, mom?” 

“What do you want for dinner sweetie?” 

Crowley shrugs and looks back at his papers. 

His mom sighs and sits down next to him on the couch, “I know you’re upset about what happened, and maybe you’re mad about being punished, but Anthony you have to understand. Your father and I don’t mind you being rebellious, we never have, but we also thought you knew that there were limitations. You can’t go around doing drugs. You’re lucky the school didn’t call the police. I...I don’t know what to do. I thought you just liked to be a bit of the ‘bad boy.’ I didn’t realize you might be going this far or, or trying to ask for help. The other parents kept telling me to be careful when you started wearing all that black and the leather jackets and sunglasses all the time and I told them you were a sweet boy, you just liked the style, but now you’re doing drugs and I don’t know what to do-“ 

“I’ve never done drugs, mom! Jesus! I’m actually really glad he came outside when he did! I didn’t even want to do it!” 

“Anthony. Please, don’t shout. If you have something to say I need you to take a deep breath so that you can say it calmly. That way you say what you mean and I’m able to talk it out with you.” 

Crowley slumps back into the couch, “Jus’ wanted to look at a stupid plant. Then there’s a joint and Hastur’s bein’ belligerent and Beelzebub is glaring and what was I supposed to do?” He turns to look at her when he asks and even though he had meant the question to be rhetorical the look on his face throws her back to when he was six and every question was accompanied with a certain desperation and fervor for the answer. Her sweet little boy, always looking for answers. 

“How do you normally decide what to do sweetheart?” 

He snorts, “Normally I’m not stupid enough to follow them outside.” 

His mom nods, “And why is that?” 

He looks down at his hands, “Well, becaussse...because Aziraphale would tell me it’s sssstupid. It’ll just get me into trouble.” 

He really wishes he could get rid of the hiss completely. No one at home bugs him about it, Aziraphale pretends it doesn't exist because he knows Crowley prefers that, but sometimes it'll come out in the middle of class or something and it's just incredibly inconvenient. 

“Aziraphale is a smart boy. He cares about you. What would he have done if it had been him that day?” 

Crowley looks up at her and grins, “Would have told them to go to hell.” 

His mom smiles and pulls him over into a hug, “Maybe, from now on, before you do things you think about what Aziraphale’s advice for you would be hm?” 

He nods and leans against her. 

“I won’t start wearing slacks and tartan though. I refuse.” 

“That’s alright, sweetheart. We don’t want you to change Anthony. Your father and I love you. You just be yourself.” 

They sit together in silence for a few minutes. Crowley forgot how nice it could be to just talk to his mom. She’s pretty good at giving advice. 

“Can we have chicken for dinner?” 

“Of course.” 

“I think I love Aziraphale.” 

“Oh, Anthony. I know.” 

Crowley sits up and looks at her, “What? How? I didn’t tell you.” 

She smiles and smooths his hair down, “You didn’t have to dear.” 

He frowns. 

“Have you told him?” 

Crowley gapes and nearly falls off the couch, “Of course not!” 

Dinner that night goes alright. Crowley’s mom has obviously talked to his dad because he’s not looking at him like he’s going to go overdose on heroin if they take their eyes off him for more than a few seconds and his little sister Anathema chatters on about what she’s learning about whales in her science class. So, everything is fine. He goes to bed feeling better that night. Then he wakes up to tapping on his window and promptly freaks the fuck out. He doesn’t want to die today. He hasn’t told Zira he loves him. He hasn’t gotten to hold his hand or, or kiss his pudgy little cheek. He hasn’t even gotten to make him smile since last _ Thursday. _And now he’s going to be brutally murdered in his bedroom. 

He steels himself with a few deep breaths and peeks over at the window to see what pointy or shooty weapon is waiting to take him out only to see, blonde curls and blue eyes? Angel? Apparently his attacker's weapon of choice is baby blues and a pout that never fails to get Crowley to do whatever Aziraphale wants. Good choice honestly. Aziraphale is waking him up by rapping on his window at, he checks his clock, four in the morning? If Zira's parents find out he’s dead. Crowley smiles. 

Aziraphale grins and waves when he notices Crowley looking at him and Crowley starts to get up to let him in but he freezes when Aziraphale’s eyes widen and his cheeks go red. Shit. Crowley sleeps nearly naked. He forgot. Aziraphale came all this way to see him in the middle of the night and he goes and tries to give the boy a heart attack. Satan. Crowley blushes and rips his blanket off his bed to cover himself with. Aziraphale turns around and Crowley takes that as the invitation to get dressed that it is. If this is going to become a thing that they do he’s going to have to start wearing pyjamas to bed instead of just his boxers. 

Once he’s got himself covered he opens the window up, “Hey Angel, um, ngh, sorry about that.” 

Aziraphale turns around and smiles at him, “That’s perfectly alright dear boy. I did put you on the spot a bit after all.” 

He nods and moves to the side, “Well, c’mon in then.” 

So he helps Aziraphale climb through the window and shuts it afterwards. They situate themselves, Crowley sprawled across his bed and Zira sat prim and proper at his desk with the chair turned so they’re facing each other. 

“What’s up? Everything okay?” 

“Oh yes. I just missed you terribly dear boy.” 

Jesu-Satan help him. Aziraphale can’t go around _saying _things like that. Not if he wants Crowley to survive. 

“I would have come to see you after school one day except my parents have insisted I go to school and then it’s straight home after every day. They’re worried I might have gotten myself mixed up with the wrong sort. So,” he holds his hands up as if to say ‘here we are.’ 

“Angel. You just snuck out at hell o’clock in the morning to sneak in my window. You’re definitely ‘mixed up with the wrong sort’ at this point.” 

“Well, what am I to do? They’ve gone and decided that I’m not to speak to or see you ever again and when I told them that that simply wouldn’t be possible because you’re my best friend and I care for you deeply they just...just...didn’t care! They weren’t even swayed when I tried to tell them that they should want me to be a good influence in your life if what they were saying was true! That one always works Crowley!” 

Crowley blinks but Aziraphale continues before he can ask what the hell he’s going on about. 

“And then Gabriel came in and implied that...that you might be trying to...seduce me or some such and ‘It’s not your fault if you’ve been tempted into sin little brother, all you have to do is ask forgiveness and move on.’ And Father is starting to get suspicious of my-my _preferences_ because of it and I was really, truly hoping to have another year or so before they found out about my being of that persuasion Crowley and I don't know what to do!” 

When Zira is finished he leans back and pants a little. He barely took a breath the entire time he was ranting. Crowley doesn’t really know what to do with everything Aziraphale just unpacked. Apparently, Aziraphale has convinced his parents to let them hang out by telling them Crowley needs a good influence before. Huh. And that’s the closest Zira’s ever gotten to blatantly saying that he’s gay. Which would make Crowley super duper proud except he knows how panicked he must be about his brother bringing it up to his parents. Not always the most accepting zealots that bunch. Loving as all get out. Practice what they preach. Just, don’t always preach accepting things people can’t help. Things that aren’t even wrong at all. Crowley has no doubt in the deepest pit of his heart that if he showed up on their doorstep one day with nowhere else to go they would take him in with loving arms. Help him. Feed him. Let him stay until he had somewhere else. But they would try to pray him straight and tell him that God loves him and would forgive him all of his sins if he would only ask. They wouldn't do it with hate or threats of hell. They would do it with kindness and smiles and love. They'd even stop if he asked them to. The damage would be done already but still. It almost makes it worse. Its easier to dislike the religious nuts who abuse everything about the religion. 

“Angel, remember to breathe alright? When these things happen sometimes we just have to take a moment to breathe before we can deal with it. Nothin’ wrong with that.” 

He watches Aziraphale breathe and relax for a few moments. He just needed a reminder to take a step back before he worked himself into a tizzy. 

“I hope you don’t mind that I-that is...it was just an excuse you see, I didn’t actually mean that I-“ 

“Zira, I don’t mind what you tell your parents to get them off your back. Never have.” 

Aziraphale nods and tries to smile at him. It looks more like a grimace. There is still the issue of Gabriel stepping in where he doesn’t belong, as per usual, of course. 

Crowley straightens up a bit to look Aziraphale in the eye, “There is not a single thing wrong with you Angel. If I have to put a damn slideshow together and go beat them upside the head with it to show them that you’re perfect how you are, I will. I swear to god Aziraphale. There’ll be graphs. Pie charts. Outside sources. Diagrams. With labels. Accompanying pamphlets. It’ll all be very professional.” 

That gets a genuine smile out of his Angel. Good. It’s been so long. He’s got a lot of catching up to do on making Aziraphale smile. 

“Thank you, Crowley.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Expanding on the religious homophobia: I can promise, while it might (will probably) be a 'gets worse before it gets better' thing, it will definitely be resolved in the end because I love my baby and he will get the happiness he deserves. There will be no kicking anyone out, no physical assault, no homophobic slurs, just problems with homosexuality based in religion that are going to be resolved in the end. I'm not excusing it, it's still horrible, just clarifying for anyone who needs to know. It's not a major player in this specific fic, just mentioned really super vaguely, but it has its place in the future so I'm doing a bit of preemptive warning/explanation.


End file.
